HSBC Innovation Banking UK CEO to Step Down

HSBC Innovation Banking has announced that UK CEO Erin Platts, has confirmed her intention to step down from her role in December this year.

Erin Platts will stay in her post as UK CEO of HSBC Innovation Banking until December to help identify a successor who shares the same passion, expertise and deep knowledge of the innovation and banking economy.

Thereafter Erin will continue to be a special advisor to HSBC and the Innovation Bank which now boasts almost 3,500 clients globally. In January, she’ll take up her new role as CEO of Octopus Ventures.

In a statement on LinkedIn, HSBC UK CEO Ian Stuart said: “Over the last 16 months, HSBC Innovation Banking has gone from strength to strength, onboarding clients at a faster rate than ever before and opening up more opportunities for clients across the innovation sector.

Today, we’re announcing that our UK CEO Erin Platts will be stepping down from her role at the end of the year. Having worked closely with Erin as we’ve developed HSBC Innovation Banking, I have valued her leadership, expertise and unwavering commitment to both our clients and colleagues across Innovation Banking globally, but especially within the UK.

We’re delighted that Erin will continue as a special advisor to HSBC from the beginning of 2025 and will stay with us until the end of the year to help us identify a successor with the same passion, expertise and deep knowledge of the innovation economy.

HSBC Innovation Banking has an exciting future as we continue to be deeply embedded in the innovation ecosystem – helping our clients provide the solutions to the challenges we all face in the future whilst meeting their own growth ambitions. We’re pleased that we have the people, opportunity and platform in place to drive continued success here in the UK and globally.”

In her own statement on Linkedin and confirming the news, Erin Platts said: “After over 20 years in banking, today marks a bittersweet moment as we announce that I will be stepping down from my position as CEO of HSBC Innovation Banking in the UK in December. I am so proud of the Innovation Banking team and all that we have achieved together over two decades. HSBC Innovation Banking is stronger than ever: we’ve successfully built our presence across key geographies including the UK, US, Hong Kong, Israel and the Nordics.

In the UK and Nordics alone, Innovation Banking serves almost 3,500 clients and we are welcoming new clients onto our platform at a faster rate than we have ever done before. Knowing I will leave the business in a position of strength, with a world class leadership team, gives me conviction that the time is right for me to move on to a new opportunity next year.

I want to thank every member of the team and Board for their dedication to serving innovators and investors, making us the number one bank for technology and life sciences in the UK. I have made lifelong friends and memories that I will cherish forever.

I also want to thank the wider HSBC team for being supportive partners in building Innovation Banking. I’m particularly grateful to Noel Quinn, Barry O’Byrne Ian Stuart and Stuart Tait for their partnership.

Whilst leaving will be tough, I am excited for my next chapter, and I am not going far. I will both stay on as a special advisor to HSBC as well as join a longstanding partner in the ecosystem, Octopus. I am delighted to announce that from January 2025 I will join the incredible team as CEO of Octopus Ventures. I have long been an admirer of the team Simon Rogerson Alliott Cole Stuart Quickenden Ruth Handcock, mission and values that Octopus have built and look forward to leading a critical part of the platform.

I will remain a huge champion and advocate for HSBC Innovation Banking. I remain bullish that the UK and Europe is an amazing place to start and scale innovation businesses and I look forward to continuing to support founders in”

One of Europe’s leading spend management platforms, Pleo, recently received €40 million debt financing facility from HSBC Innovation Banking and also released a joint report with Dealroom stating that Fintech is back on top in the UK Tech Investment sector.